Basic Trope: A person rescues another from a bad life by bringing them into their cause/organization.
- Straight: Bob takes on Alice, a homeless woman, as his partner.
- Exaggerated: Bob takes on Alice, a homeless woman; Charlie, an injured veteran; Dracone, a former criminal, and Eva, a slave he freed, as his True Companions.
- Downplayed: Bob takes on Alice, who was working minimum wage, as his partner.
- Justified: Bob has Chronic Hero Syndrome and Alice has a high sense of honor that requires she repay him.
- Inverted: Bob takes Alice away from a peaceful life by making her his partner.
- Subverted: Bob gives Alice some help and offers to take her on as his partner...but she turns him down.
- Double Subverted: ...However, later, she does become his partner because of this incident.
- Parodied: Bob rescues Alice from a literal gutter and offers her to become his adventuring partner. Even though Alice is a noblewoman with no adventuring skills, and both their future prospects would likely be better if they go on separate ways, Alice accepts, and hilarious bickerings ensue as their "partnership" inevitably causes trouble for both parties.
- Zig Zagged: Bob rescues Alice from slavery and introduces her to his shopkeeper friend to give her work instead of recruiting her himself. But then Alice is caught from the shopkeeper and is thrown into prison, and at first Bob refuses to help her for being an Ungrateful Bastard. After it is revealed that this is all a misunderstanding and Alice didn't steal, Bob decides to bail Alice, and this time he recruits her to his Five-Man Band.
- Averted: Bob rescues Alice from trouble, but they both goes separate ways.
- Enforced: The executives want an unobtrusive way to show Bob's heroic nature.
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz sneaks The Mole into Bob's group by having him pose as a man in distress.
- Defied: Bob sees Alice begging in the streets and considers recruiting her out of pity, but decides that she lacks the skills and motivation to be a useful member of his party.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Back to Recruited from the Gutter.
